5lbs of C-4 military explosives, grenades and night-vision goggles also found at his home in Colorado

Special warfare operator acted as consultant on Transformers 3 movie

A 'rogue' U.S. Navy SEAL has been arrested together with two other men for allegedly attempting to sell machine guns smuggled from Iraq to Mexican drug dealers.

Nicholas Bickle, of San Diego, allegedly smuggled up to 80 AK47s following a tour in Iraq. He was able to get the weapons back to America because special forces are not searched.

He was arrested together with Andrew Kaufman of Las Vegas and Richard Paul of Durango, Colorado, after they sold weapons to federal agents.

Court drawing: Nicholas Bickie's co-accused Andrew Kaufman makes an appearance before a federal judge in Las Vegas. He is accused of trying to sell the smuggled weapons

Five pounds of C-4 military explosives, grenades and night-vision goggles were found in the home of 34-year-old Paul, according to federal prosecutors and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents in Las Vegas and Colorado.

'As long as they got paid , they didn't care if the weapons wound up in Mexico or on the streets of Las Vegas,' federal prosecutor Drew Smith told U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr. in Las Vegas.

Smith characterised Bickle, 33, as a 'rogue Navy SEAL' - an active-duty special warfare operator 1st class who Smith said also worked as an actor and consultant on the Hollywood movie 'Transformers 3.

Bickle was arrested on Wednesday and was due to appear today before a federal magistrate judge in San Diego.

Smith said outside court that federal agents expected to find weapons, but were surprised to find such a stash at Paul's home in Colorado.

The three men are accused of smuggling 80 machine guns into the United States from Iraq and selling to federal agents

Hollywood link: In addition to serving with U.S. special forces, Nicholas Bickle appears alongside Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely in the blockbuster 'Tranformers 3'. He is also a consultant on the film

Brad Briersdorf, a Colorado-based ATF spokesman, said there were no evacuations of the neighborhood while agents removed the military-grade explosive. C-4 is a stable compound that requires an initiator or a blasting cap to cause a blast.

Briersdorf declined to elaborate about the destructive power of the explosives found in Paul's home.

Smith said federal agents were still serving search warrants yesterday at Bickle's home, vehicle and a storage unit in the San Diego area.

'What we have here is simply greed at any cost,' Smith told the judge.

Bickle is accused in a criminal complaint of smuggling 80 AK-47 weapons from Iraq or Afghanistan, including factory-made 7.62 mm Iraqi machine guns that would be difficult or impossible to trace. Other weapons included Ruger handguns of the type used by U.S. military police officers.

'According to the other members of the organization, this was possible because Navy SEALs are not searched when returning from deployments,' the criminal complaint said.

Target: Andrew Kaufman was arrested at his home close to Las Vegas on Wednesday

Las Vegas-based ATF Special Agent Eric Fox alleged in a criminal complaint filed Oct. 29 that at least one of the accused coconspirators bragged that the guns were from the military in the Middle East and would be untraceable.

The investigation began with a tip from a fourth man, an ex-felon turned confidential informant facing felony battery domestic violence and robbery charges in Nevada. He is cooperating with authorities and was not charged in the federal case.

Neither the informant nor the undercover agent was identified.

Bickle is quoted in the complaint as warning the informant of the consequences of turning against him.

'If you ever (expletive) me, you know who we are,' he is quoted as saying. 'We're the government, we'll catch you.'

Smith said Bickle, his close friend, Paul, in Colorado, and their associate Kaufman in Nevada sold machine guns for $1,300 to $2,400 each, and handguns for $300 to an undercover federal agent who told them they would be shipped to Mexico.

The prosecutor said the group could have reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars selling arms over the last year.

Smith told Foley that prosecutors expect to seek an indictment in Las Vegas on charges including distribution of explosive materials, arms smuggling and illegal firearms dealing. He said the explosives charge carries a possible sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Ben Nadig, Kaufman's lawyer, declined comment before and after the brief court appearance.

Alex Chavarria Tejada, lawyer for Paul in Durango, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The complaint accuses the trio of conspiring to smuggle and sell 18 weapons and 14 other firearms since June to an undercover federal agent in Las Vegas and Colorado. The single conspiracy charge carries a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

It alleges that Bickle, Kaufman and Paul engaged in firearms dealing without paying a special tax, possessed a machine gun that wasn't registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, and transferred an unregistered machine gun.

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US Navy SEAL accused of smuggling guns from Iraq to sell to Mexican drug dealers